Posted by kelphead on October 29, 2000 at 00:10:49:
In Reply to: Half as bad posted by Eins on October 28, 2000 at 22:46:28:
eins, i've stayed out of this discussion b/c i am
admittedly quite ignorant of the subject matter, however i wanted to bring attention, if not correct, something that you stated in your post:
"Nobody is proposing to use Nitrox on each and every dive. What some are proposing (and that makes a lot of sense) is to use Nitrox on dives that are within the EAN limits but beyond the shallow ranges where the risk is not so high."
i hope that if i need to be corrected myself, someone will step in and clear the air for me, but i really truly thought that mhk (and someone else whom i can't remember at the moment) mentioned to me that the real benefits of nitrox were indeed in the shallower depth range (ie, 1-100ft). after that, something different was needed at deeper depths, such as trimix or heliox, to prevent oxtox.
actually, if i remember even more clearly, the argument was that heliox was the best at any and all depths, but the price was very prohibitive; therefore, nitrox was a 2nd best for every dive at all depths, but moreso at shallower depths, whereas the safety margin is lost deeper than, say, 100ft.
again, i will step back if my memory served me wrong here, but i really thought that this was the message i got b/c that was the only reason i started to consider getting nitrox certified myself: not b/c i would be going deeper w/nitrox, but b/c it would supposedly be beneficial to me in the depth range i currently and regularly dive (down to 80ft).
just a minor detail, but i wanted to bring this to your attention.
...any other thoughts out there...?...
kelphead.